Conclusions: The Emerging New International Jihadist Network That is Bound to Hit the West

Introduction

The following report examines current and emerging militant threats in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region and their likely consequences for regional and international security. The report examines the strength of militant organizations in this region, and of the Sunni jihadist organizations in Punjab province, based primarily on Pakistani media sources and on how Pakistani leaders look at various contemporary problems that they face.

The report also reveals the connections between various militant organizations, showing that the link between Al-Qaeda and leaders of the Sunni jihadist organizations in the Punjab province of Pakistan have been in existence for over a decade and are growing by the day. These inter-connections reveal that the Punjab-based jihadist networks have emerged as today's Al-Qaeda.

Also discussed are the following: the persisting terror threats to Pakistan's nuclear weapons; Punjab-based Al-Qaeda-linked militants' and Kashmiri militant groups' training with the Taliban in the Pakistani tribal region, as part of the jihad against the U.S./NATO troops in Afghanistan; Taliban militants' coming to Pakistani cities to find shelter and to regroup, due to Pakistani military operations; transformation of Al-Qaeda as a multi-ethnic network and its recent recruitment of fighters from European countries such as Sweden and Germany; the identification of a U.S. national in a recent jihadist video; and revelations about Pakistani militant groups' ability to use American and Canadian citizens of Pakistani origin in hatching terror plots in Denmark and India.